Organization XIII 100 Themes Challenge
by Mr. Garbanzo
Summary: 100 short stories showing bits and pieces of the lives of Organization XIII, and maybe others occasionally, in various time periods. Will have a little bit of everything when I'm done, but probably no romance/pairings... I can't write that stuff.
1. Illusion

**Illusion**

Rising up before us was the most bizarre structure that I had ever seen. It appeared to be a castle of some sort, but nothing about its architecture made any sense--hallways and rooms stuck out sideways from the main section, each floor seemed to be a different size, and windows were positioned at odd angles. Strangest of all were what appeared to be additional towers, completely separate from the main building but with no doors of their own, sprouting out from the ground in several places.

Glancing to my companions, I noticed that Vexen seemed to be equally confused by the castle. His mouth was hanging open, and one of his eyes bulged and twitched, as they always did when something disturbed the old scientist.

Xaldin scratched his head, then shrugged and grunted slightly before walking ahead on the path.

Xigbar leaned forward slightly and took a few minutes to stare intently at the building, as if his one good eye was struggling to figure out exactly what it was looking at.

Xemnas just stood, silent and expressionless as usual. He had barely spoken to the five of us since we had arrived on this new world--it almost seemed as if he had lost his memory yet again.

Finally, Zexion took several steps toward the bizarre castle, passing the spot where Xaldin and stopped and holding out his hands. He closed his eyes for a moment and concentrated, causing a black, leather-bound book to flash into existence before him.

"An illusion," he said, waving one of his hands over the book's pages. "That castle... it's nothing more than an illusion."

Xigbar glanced down at him.

"An illusion, huh... looks pretty solid to me, kid."

"Yeah," Xaldin added, "Whoever built this thing musta been on drugs, but there's gotta be _somethin'_ there."

Vexen turned toward the hairy elf and scoffed.

"I seriously doubt any amount of drugs could make _this_ work. This castle's design isn't even physically possible. Everything about its structure is just... _wrong._"

Zexion sighed, then raised his hand high into the air, causing blue and black energy to swirl outward from his book. For just a moment, the image of the castle in front of them flickered, being replaced with a massive white tower that easily dwarfed any other building we had seen on this world. Even the land around it changed--the bottomless pits and strange purplish rock were replaced by fairly normal-looking cliffs, brush-filled valleys, and an overgrown dirt path. Only the front door, with its odd spiked decorations, remained the same.

And then, Zexion's strength gave out and he slumped to the ground, breathing heavily. The white tower vanished, and the distorted castle, every part of it defying the laws of physics, appeared once again.

"That's what I was _trying_ to tell you," he said in between breaths. "The castle, as you see it... is nothing but an illusion. Hiding its true appearance."

Vexen put his hand to his chin and took several steps forward, approaching the illusion-cloaked castle and smiling slightly.

"A building this large, disguised so thoroughly... for such a powerful illusion to hold for very long, this place must be absolutely _flooded_ with magic."


	2. Light

**Light**

Roxas slowly walked further and further into the tunnels beneath Twilight Town, nearly stumbling as one of his oversized shoes got caught on a loose cobblestone that had somehow found its way into the underground.

Axel had been assigned yet another mission with the kid, and like most of the rest, the two Nobodies were sent off to that city where the sky always seemed to be frozen in the middle of a sunset. But this time, there was a bit of a problem--there had been a power outage all across Twilight Town, and the lighting system in the tunnels had completely shut down.

The spiky-haired boy noticed two points of yellow light in front of him and lashed out with his Keyblade. The Shadow Heartless, barely visible in the darkness of the tunnel, squeaked in pain for just a moment before it was destroyed by a second swing.

Axel caught up with the boy not long afterward, keeping one hand on the tunnel wall to avoid accidentally wandering off in some other direction while his eyes were still adjusting to the dark.

"Hey, Roxas..."

Roxas lowered his weapon and turned before speaking, trying to see where the voice had come from. Of course, with how dark it was down there, neither he nor Axel could actually see this.

"Huh?"

"Your powers let you control light, right?"

"Yeah," he mumbled, not sounding all that sure of himself. "I think so."

"Then why don't you ever _use_ 'em? A little bit of light could come in pretty handy right now, y'know."

Roxas shrugged and held up one hand, closing his eyes and concentrating in an attempt to summon up the powers he had gained as a Nobody.

For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then, slowly, a dim glow began to surround the boy's Keyblade. Another moment passed, and the light grew slightly brighter, illuminating a small space around Roxas but leaving the rest of the tunnels just as dark as before.

At first, Axel didn't know how to react. After a moment of silence passed, he just couldn't help but snicker a little.

"Um... that's it?"

Roxas turned back toward Axel, looking confused.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said, scratching his head slightly. "I just thought there'd be a little more, y'know, _light_..."


	3. Rated

**Rated**

A large group of black-cloaked men had gathered in one of the many gray, metallic rooms of the Castle that Never Was, standing around a large table where a stack of papers sat. Most of the Organization was present, with a few exceptions--Larxene had not arrived yet, and (as usual) Xemnas and Saix were not present. Nobody had seen the Superior all day, and the blue-haired elf had simply dropped off the papers and left as quickly as he came.

Roxas glanced down at the papers and blinked, slightly confused.

"What're these?"

He picked up the first page of the stack, with Xigbar's name, number, and official title plastered across the top in bold letters. Below were a series of numbers and percentages, as well as a lot of small-print text that the spiky-haired boy hadn't bothered to read.

"Mission reports for this month," Xigbar said, snatching the page out of the younger member's hand. "And this one's mine, kiddo. Better start looking toward the bottom before Larxene gets in here if you wanna see yours."

Roxas nodded, then pushed the rest of the papers aside, taking the one near the bottom that was marked with his name. The rest of the Organization followed suit, each one taking one set of papers until finally only one was left.

"Huh," Axel said, peeking around from behind Lexaeus and glancing at the large man's mission report. "Only third place this time? What's going on, Lex?"

"I would think that would be rather obvious," Vexen said, "If Lexaeus was rated third-highest by the Superior, then two members must have had a higher mission-completion ratio than he did this month."

Axel crossed his arms.

"No duh."

After shooting a quick glare at Vexen, he turned back toward Lexaeus and continued.

"I know Saix probably came in first again, and Xemnas never really goes on missions anymore, so... who's the other guy?"

The large man just shrugged, and after a moment's pause, he finally spoke.

"Perhaps if you compared everyone's mission reports, you would find out for yourself."

Axel immediately went to work, convincing as many members as possible to put their mission reports back onto the table--and snatching them away from those who wouldn't give them up willingly. He then spread them out across the table in no particular order, then started reading over each of them while the others crowded around.

"Well, let's see... it's definitely not our hooded mystery girl," Axel said, glancing at the report for the newly-joined Number Fourteen. "Dead last."

"Larxene's tied with Roxas for second-to-last... and then there's Vexen, Luxord, and me..."

Glancing over the other members, he spotted Xaldin in fourth place, Xigbar only a fraction of a point behind, and Marluxia coming in shortly after the two elves. Smack-dab in the middle was Zexion, who hadn't been sent on very many missions lately but had still done well on most of them.

"No way," Axel said, hurriedly looking over the rest of the reports to make sure he hadn't read anything wrong. "There's just _no way_ he came in ahead of all of us."

The redhead glanced around at the rest of the room; Xigbar smirked, Zexion was busy reading something in his book, and Lexaeus looked calm as usual, but everyone else was staring toward a certain young member of the Organization, a look of surprise on each one's face.

"Demyx? _Demyx_ came in ahead of _Lexaeus!?_"

The musician laughed nervously, backing away from Axel and the others slightly and nearly stumbling backward over a chair.

"Heh heh, yeah... I guess I did, huh?"

Axel rushed over toward him, waving his hands around wildly and almost yelling.

"How the hell did _that_ happen!? I mean, you're always convincing us to go off and do your missions for you... there is _no way_ you've got a 99% mission completion rate."

Demyx's nervous laughter became even more nervous as he shoved the chair aside and began backing away from the spiky-haired man a little bit faster than before.

"Well, uh... I..."

"What? C'mon, tell us. How'd you do it? Figure out a song that puts Saix to sleep even when the moon's out?"

He shrugged.

"No, nothing like that, man! I just... y'know... went out and did my missions like anyone else."

"What about all those missions you bailed out on? You know, the ones you got me and Roxas to do for you."

"Weeeell, about those... I, uh... kinda made 'em up."

Vexen's eye twitched. Zexion looked up, sighed, and then returned his attentions to the book in front of him. Xigbar began to snicker uncontrollably. And Roxas just stood there and looked confused, as usual.

A heat haze began to ripple through the air as Axel's eyes went wide and his hands suddenly clenched into fists.

"You _made them up?_ So you're saying those weren't even real missions... just some kind of _joke!?_"

Demyx gulped and then went rocketing down a hallway, propelling himself with a powerful jet of water. Axel ran after him as fast as he could, but before long, the younger man was far out of reach; despite his apparent laziness and habit of not doing much training, Demyx was surprisingly fast when he wanted to be.

"Gah... when I get my hands on him," Axel snarled, gasping for breath in between words. For a second, he stopped and was completely silent except for the sounds of his breathing. Then, his eyes lit up and an evil grin spread across his face as he suddenly got an idea.

"Hey, Demyx!", he yelled down the hallway, "Get over here... we need to come up with a good mission for Larxene before she gets up."


	4. Eyes

**Eyes**

Demyx and Xigbar sat on one of the several couches in the Gray Area, relaxing after completing several tough missions in a row. The old elf was reclined back in his seat, drinking a can of beer; the younger man, as usual, was playing his sitar. It was a familiar tune that he had composed shortly after Kingdom Hearts first appeared in the sky, titled "Sacred Moon."

"Hey, Xiggy?"

The music suddenly stopped as Demyx removed his hands from the instrument and turned his head toward Xigbar.

"Huh? Whaddya want?"

"Just wanted to ask you something, since you've been here a lot longer than I have. How come the boss-man has those creepy orange eyes?"

Xigbar jerked forward in his seat, spraying the floor in front of him with a mouthful of beer. After gulping down what little of the beverage he hadn't accidentally sent flying, he scooted to a section of the couch that wasn't soaked and then finally replied.

"That's a real funny question to just ask outta nowhere like that."

"Yeah, I know... but I was just wondering," Demyx said, resuming his song but keeping it much quieter than before. "The other day, I saw a picture of the guy before he was a Nobody, and his eyes were brown."

Xigbar emptied out what was left of his beer can, just listening as Demyx went on and on.

"I mean, I know our eye colors change a little bit sometimes... but from brown to orange? Don't you think that's a little weird?"

Xigbar shrugged, then grinned slightly.

"Heh, no surprise there. Xemnas isn't exactly normal himself."

He reached down and pulled another beer out of the cooler next to his couch, opening it up and taking a big gulp before continuing.

"I wouldn't worry about the boss's eye color too much if I were you. It's just a color, after all... no big deal."


	5. Dreams

**Dreams**

While Xemnas slept, unfamiliar images sometimes floated into his mind. Strange images of people he had never met and places he had never been, and of times he could not remember... things that he could not explain, though they all felt somehow familiar.

A tall, brown-haired man ran through the halls of an old castle, summoning a heavy-looking golden Keyblade in one hand as he went. A dark figure watched from the other side of the room as the young man headed down a staircase, coming face-to-face with some sort of giant monster in the room below.

Suddenly, the scene ended almost as soon as it had begun, and the brown-haired man was standing in a grassy area with a blue-haired girl and a young boy who looked exactly like Roxas. They were talking, but the words sounded distant and warped to the point where they could barely be distinguished from background noise.

The grassy area shifted into someplace familiar--Radiant Garden, though it was in much better shape than it had been the last time Xemnas had seen the place. The brown-haired man summoned forth his Keyblade and ran toward someone who looked almost like a younger Xigbar, who aimed one of his crossbow-like weapons and pulled the trigger just as the young man got close.

There was a flash of light, and the scene changed again--the brown-haired man was confronting a much older man, with pointed ears and no hair other than a short silvery beard. His eyes were a bizarre, almost-glowing orange color that reminded Xemnas of his own.

Another image of the old man came. This time, he was sitting down at a desk in a dusty, dimly-lit room, writing a letter using an old-fashioned quill pen and quietly whispering to himself as he went. Unlike the previous scenes, the young, brown-haired man was nowhere to be seen.

And then, the strange images of times and places he could not remember ended, and Xemnas woke up, feeling as though he had barely slept at all.


	6. Keeping a Secret

**Keeping a Secret**

Xemnas stood upon the Altar of Naught, staring off into the cloudy sky over the empty city known as "The World That Never Was." He silently watched as several pink, shimmering hearts drifted upward before finally disappearing into the dark clouds, where they would wait until enough hearts had gathered for Kingdom Hearts to form.

A pair of footsteps reached the edge of the platform, alerting the Superior to the presence of another. He continued to watch the rising hearts for another few seconds, then slowly turned to face his visitor.

"Lord Xemnas," the blue-haired elf said, "Your plan for Castle Oblivion is now underway."

A creepy smile developed on the silver-haired man's face.

"I see. Does Number Eight suspect anything?"

Saix shook his head.

"Nothing at all. He was all too willing to go along with the plan."

The Superior's smile faded slightly, and he turned away from Saix, watching as an especially large and powerful heart passed through the clouds.

"With only a bit of convincing from an old friend, that one jumps head-first into a killing spree... he may become dangerous."

Saix nodded, obedient as always. He then raised his hand slightly as he spoke, making a fist as if crushing something in his grasp.

"If he ever turns against us, Lord Xemnas... I will destroy him myself."


	7. Introduction

**Introduction**

Though only fifteen years of age, Elaeus was already larger than most adults, standing at more than six feet in height. He was far more muscular than other boys, as well; if not for his young face and voice, he could have easily been mistaken for a man nearly twice his age.

As such, he had put his size and strength to work for his first job: repairing the wall of a family friend's house. A tiny blue-haired boy watched from several yards away as Elaeus hefted stone blocks larger than his own head and placed them into the broken section of the wall, applying some sort of semi-solid material between the cracks so that the stone would stick to those around it.

Almost an hour later, when the hole had been fully repaired, Elaeus turned and picked up his tools in preparation to leave. He wasn't able to walk far, however, before the child who had been watching him work stepped out in front of him.

"Hi," the kid said, waving one of his tiny hands up at Elaeus. "You're really, really tall!"

He smiled and chuckled slightly.

"Yes," he said, lightly patting the little guy on the head. "And you're about the size of my toolbox. What's your name?"

"My name's Yenzo."

"Hmm... that's an odd name."

At this very moment, the boy's mother came out of the house, admiring the tall boy's work on the wall for a few seconds before turning toward him and handing him a small pouch full of munny.

"I'm sorry you had to take some time out from school to help us out," the blue-haired woman said, reaching down and picking up her son as she went. "I know this isn't much, but... it's all we can really offer right now..."

"It's more than enough, Mrs. Boccaccio."

Elaeus glanced down at the little boy again, noticing the kid's huge, dark-colored eyes staring up at him. He then turned and yanked on his mother's hair lightly to get her attention.

"Mommy, look!", he said, pointing toward Elaeus. "He's even taller than you!"

She smiled, pushing her hair back out of the child's reach to avoid any more yanks.

"Oh... I almost forgot to introduce you. This is my son, Ienzo," she said. "He's only three years old, you know, but he's already enrolled in kindergarten. The school says he's going to be something of a genius when he grows up."

Once again, Elaeus chuckled.

"He certainly seems bright to me," he said. "Most kids his age would be running over and trying to play with my tools the first time I looked away, but he just stood back and watched."

Pocketing his money and waving goodbye to the mother and son as he left their backyard, Elaeus slowly walked off down the street back toward his own house.

"I'm sure we'll meet again someday, Ienzo."


	8. Waiting

**Waiting**

On the Altar of Naught, bathed in the yellow light of Kingdom Hearts overhead, Demyx stood alone before Xemnas. It was an unusual scene, one that nobody had expected to ever happen--least of all Demyx himself.

"You had a question, Number Nine?"

Demyx stopped glancing upward at the heart-shaped moon and focused his attention back on the Superior, trying his best to stand up perfectly straight and still in an imitation of Saix and hoping that this might encourage Xemnas not to punish him too harshly for what he was going to ask. Needless to say, the imitation came off as rigid and obviously faked.

"Yeah... I mean, yes," he said, forcing himself to avoid using slang when in the presence of Xemnas. "I was wondering about the Heartless created from our hearts when we became Nobodies."

The silver-haired man's face remained expressionless.

"What about them?"

"When we have missions to go out and destroy our own Heartless... how come we have to just stand back and watch the heart float away after we're done?"

"Surely you must already know the answer," Xemnas said, raising one hand toward the sky and turning to face the giant floating heart. "By destroying your Heartless and freeing the heart within, it will eventually become part of Kingdom Hearts..."

He raised both hands and tilted his head back, staring directly into the brightest part of the heart-moon.

"And when Kingdom Hearts is complete, so too can we Nobodies become complete."

Demyx loosened up for a moment in order to scratch his head, then stood at attention once again before Xemnas turned back to face him.

"But... why can't we just, y'know, grab the heart right when it comes out?", he asked, glancing at his feet for a second and then back to Xemnas. "Why do we have to wait until it's part of Kingdom Hearts first? It's ours, right? And, I mean, unless Roxas or Xion does the job, there's no guarantee it won't just touch down somewhere else and turn into a Heartless all over again..."

For several seconds, Xemnas said nothing. He then turned away from the younger Nobody, gazing up at Kingdom Hearts as he spoke.

"You will wait until Kingdom Hearts is complete... because that is what is _expected_ of you as a member of Organization XIII."

Having no further questions--though the one he _did _have still didn't have much of an answer--Demyx nodded, broke out of his rigid stance, and then quickly ran off down the stairs leading away from the platform, not wanting to ever talk to Xemnas alone again.


	9. Memory

**Memory**

Demyx sat on one of several couches in the Gray Area, with Xigbar and Luxord joining him. The two older men had just finished up another game of poker, which the one-eyed elf had lost embarrassingly; though he had accused the gambler of cheating, he hadn't actually _seen _him pull it off, so he wasn't able to prove anything. Eventually, he gave up, conceding that Luxord had indeed won the game.

"All right, now, hand it over. You bet money on _this_ one, remember?"

Xigbar grumbled and fished a few munny out of one of his pockets, slinging them across the table toward Luxord. He deftly swiped the diamond-shaped coins out of the air before they struck him, hiding them away before his opponent decided to change his mind.

Thanks to the recent reassignment of several members, the three sitting around the table were the only ones hanging around aside from Saix--Xaldin, Roxas, and Xion had all been sent out on missions a few hours ago, and everyone else other than Xemnas himself had left the night before to prepare for their extended stay at Castle Oblivion.

"I kinda miss having everyone down here," Demyx said, plucking his sitar lightly out of boredom.

"Heh," Xigbar snickered, "Sure is a lot quieter over here without Larxene and Vexen screaming at each other all the time."

Demyx shivered; he had almost forgotten about Larxene. She was one person he definitely _didn't_ miss having around.

"I do appreciate the quiet," Luxord said, dealing out the cards once again, "But it's rather unfortunate that we're missing half the poker league."

Xigbar burst out laughing, slapping the table and nearly knocking his cards over.

"Just a couple weeks ago, _you _were half the poker league. Who else'd you sucker into joining?"

"Lexaeus and Zexion were quite willing to join without any bribery being involved, for your information," Luxord answered. "And in case you've already forgotten, you and Xaldin did as well."

"Oh... damn," Xigbar slapped one hand against his face. "Musta been _really_ drunk that day."

A few moments of silence passed while Xigbar and Luxord began another game of poker. Demyx quietly strummed away at his sitar for a while, then suddenly blurted out the first thought that popped into his head.

"I wonder what Castle Oblivion's like..."

The two older men interrupted their game to stare at him like he was some kind of idiot.

"Uh... what're you talkin' about? You were just over there last month."

"I do remember you spending quite a bit of time in the arcade that Lexaeus and I installed a while back," Luxord added, slipping a card from his sleeve into his hand while Xigbar was distracted.

"Yeah... you were in there for hours wastin' all your money on some game about an Italian plumber and a giant monkey... Donkey Dong, or somethin' like that."

Demyx suddenly stood up, his face with a half-happy, half-surprised look on it that made it seem like something amazing had just happened.

"Oh yeah! Donkey Kong!", he shouted, stumbling to catch his sitar when it went falling from his hands. He then sat back down and checked the instrument for any dents before he continued to strum away at it.

"Yeah, I remember now... Castle Oblivion's kinda weird. But the bedrooms are a lot nicer than the ones we have over here."

Xigbar rolled his eye, then turned back to the poker table to pick up where he had left off.


	10. Two Roads

**Two Roads**

Lexaeus sat on the front steps of Castle Oblivion, staring out across the grassy plains that stretched on as far as the eye could see. In the distance was the four-way crossroads, which each of them had passed by the first time they had come here. Off to the south was the road leading away from the castle, toward a small town that was nearly falling apart due to age. The other two roads led off into the wilderness; to the east, a dense pine forest, and to the west, more plains.

Somehow, the image of four crossing roads got him thinking about other things. About how many people, especially in the Realm of Light, seemed to believe that there were only two paths one could walk in life--follow the Light and live an honest life, or seek the Darkness and become corrupted.

Some went one step beyond that simple black-and-white view and added a third path, the one between Light and Darkness. Still others attempted to split this third path into two, depending on which of the two forces a person was more inclined toward. But even they still foolishly clung to the belief that Light was absolute good and Darkness would always lead one towards evil.

In truth, there are as many roads one could walk as there are people to walk them.

Good and evil could not be defined so simply as by which force of the universe a person's heart happened to be filled with--and if it could, where would that leave Nobodies, without any hearts at all?

Those with such simple, outdated views would claim that Nobodies contained neither Light or Darkness, that such beings did not truly exist at all because of it, and that this "fact" gave them the right to kill Nobodies on sight. But their story quickly unravels when examined more closely--if Nobodies do not contain Light or Darkness, how could they have the ability to open up Corridors of Darkness for travel? Without the required amount of Darkness, such a thing is impossible.

And for that matter, if Nobodies did not exist, how could one be killed in the first place?

Clearly, the heart is not quite as important as some believe it to be.


	11. Traps

**Traps**

Roxas and Xion snuck along the dusty back alleys of Agrabah, making sure to stay in the shade provided by the buildings around them--partly to avoid being noticed by the locals, but mostly because it was so hot everywhere else that they would roast if they were out in the sun too long.

The two paused for a moment as they heard something behind them, glancing around to see what the source of the sound could be. Xion noticed several reddish clay pots lined up against a nearby wall, and walked over to investigate.

"Oh," she said, bending over to get a closer look at the first pot, "This one's lid doesn't quite fit. That sound must've just been the wind moving it around."

She reached down and moved the lid so that it wasn't hanging off to the side of the pot, then turned and headed down the alley with Roxas following closely behind.

As they reached the end of the alley, they heard the strange rattling noise once again. Xion turned and noticed that they had just walked by another row of old pottery, though neither of them had noticed the pots there before.

"That's funny," she said, taking a closer look at the pots. "All of these pots have holes in them... I guess someone must have thrown them out back here."

Roxas scratched his head slightly, then crouched down beside Xion to see what she was talking about. "Weird... all the holes look exactly the same."

Before either of the two kids could say anything else, the five pots rattled again, then fell over and rolled off in different directions. There were a series of crunching sounds as long, spider-like legs burst out from the containers, and inside each of the holes a single round, yellow eye became visible.

Roxas rolled out of the way as one of the spider-legs attempted to step on him, summoning his Keyblade as he stood.

"What the... the pots are _Heartless!?_"

Xion summoned her weapon as well, holding it up just in time to block as another of the Pot Spiders attempted to trample her. The two stood back-to-back in the alley, completely surrounded by the group of five strange Heartless.

Roxas jumped high into the air and landed on top of one Heartless, driving the tip of his Keyblade down into it and smashing it into the ground. The pot-like shell shattered, and the creature within vanished in a puff of Darkness, sending a tiny heart drifting up into the air as it went. Xion blocked three more leg-strikes from the Heartless around her, then countered with a beam of light from her Keyblade, piercing one of the creatures through its eye and destroying it almost instantly.

The Organization's two youngest members both rolled out of the way simultaneously as two of their opponents charged, causing the Pot Spiders to crash into each other and become entangled in each other's legs. While they were unable to fight back, Roxas shattered both of them with a series of quick Keyblade strikes, and two more hearts drifted upward before vanishing.

Roxas barely had any time to turn before the last of the Heartless slammed two of its legs down onto him, pinning him to the ground by his cloak. He struggled against the creature for a second, but before he had the chance to break free, the Heartless was no more--Xion had surrounded her Keyblade with an aura of light and charged, slashing the pot in half with a single blow.

The two black-cloaked children dematerialized their weapons and took a few minutes to catch their breath, Roxas sitting on the ground up against the wall and Xion standing nearby.

"I wonder how all those Heartless got in the pots," Roxas said. "I mean, they're not smart enough to figure something like that out on their own..."

"Yeah... somebody must have put them in there on purpose. Like they were setting a trap for someone else."

The spiky-haired boy thought back to his previous visits to Agrabah. There _had_ been a suspicious-looking character wandering around in the streets not long before... could he have been the one who put the Heartless there?

"I bet it was that fat guy me and Axel saw," Roxas said, "He definitely seemed like he was up to something."

Xion nodded.

"He must have set these up to catch someone else," she said, glancing over at the shards of broken pottery that now littered the alley. "Good thing we found them first."

Roxas stood up and dusted his cloak off, causing Xion to glance down and notice the dust on her own uniform before doing the same. With that, the two were off walking once again, heading down yet another desert street to continue their mission.


	12. Blood

**Blood**

It was a quiet day in the Castle That Never Was--which was rather odd, considering that Larxene was one of the only members present in the floating base. She lounged on one of the couches in the Gray Area, flipping through a small leather-bound book with a look of boredom on her face.

As most of the other members were off on missions, and even Saix was busy doing something else, she was accompanied only by Xion. The little girl just sat on the other couch, silently fiddling with her hood's drawstrings as if they were the most interesting things she had ever seen.

Until, unexpectedly, she turned toward the older woman and asked a question.

"You're Larxene, right?"

The blonde nodded, not even bothering to look away from whatever it was she was reading.

Several minutes of silence passed, and she glanced over toward Xion, noticing that the strange girl was still staring at her. Well, she figured the little thing was staring at her, anyway--with that hood pulled up over her head, it was impossible to actually see her eyes.

Larxene folded down one corner of the page she was on, closed the book, and then sat up in her seat, glaring over at her nearly-silent companion.

"What do _you_ want?"

"I just wanted to ask you a question."

She sat the book down next to her and leaned forward, resting her chin on both of her hands and staring back directly into Xion's eyes. Or, at least, where she guessed that Xion's eyes would be.

"Hmph... go ahead, then. Not like I have anything else to do."

"Well," the little girl began, "I had a mission with Zexion the other day, and some Heartless's claws cut him..."

"Of course," Larxene giggled. "That little wimp..."

She paused, waving her hand slightly to indicate to Xion that she could continue with her question.

"I was just wondering... if we don't have hearts, how come we bleed?"

There was a short pause, where Larxene's expression shifted to one halfway between confusion and something else entirely. She then burst out laughing, the sound echoing outward and filling the surrounding hallways. If anyone had been asleep in the castle before, they certainly weren't now.

"Silly girl," she said, barely managing to hold in further laughter as she leaned over, gripping the table in front of her with one hand. "It's not _that_ kind of heart... that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard!"

The hooded girl turned away, looking down at the floor. She soon returned to fiddling with her uniform's drawstrings, now that her question had been answered.

"Seriously, didn't they have biology class where you're from?", the older woman asked half-mockingly, not realizing that little Xion had no memories of her past. "We'd all be _dead_ if someone had yanked _that_ out of us."


	13. Food

**Food**

It was another average day in Castle Oblivion, and those members assigned to stay there had taken some time off from work for their mid-day lunch break.

Though everyone residing in the castle was present, and there were even a few extras today due to some of the other members coming by to visit, the massive cafeteria still looked almost completely empty; it seemed to have been built with a much larger group in mind.

Vexen, carrying an old-style metal lunchbox, walked away from the counter after buying something to drink and headed toward a table where Lexaeus and Zexion were already sitting. The largest of the three men held a whole, unpeeled grapefruit in one hand, bringing it up to his mouth before opening wide and taking a huge bite. It seemed that even Lexaeus' jaw muscles were impossibly strong--he easily bit through the grapefruit's tough peel, removing a chunk of the softer fruit inside and chewing for nearly a minute before gulping it down.

Zexion, sitting next to his large friend, was quietly munching away at a small plate of pasta. There appeared to be some sort of vegetables mixed in with the noodles, all soaked in a yellow, garlicky sauce with bits of herbs sprinkled throughout it. Vexen opened up his lunchbox and removed a small, plain-looking sandwich wrapped up in clear plastic, as well as a whole avocado.

Several feet away, on the next table over, sat a group of younger members. Marluxia had a bowl of some sort of noodley soup in front of him, with bits of various vegetables and occasionally a chunk of meat bobbing up to the surface as he swirled it around before carefully scooping a little bit out with his fork. Larxene, on the other hand, was anything but careful when it came to eating; she held a fried chicken drumstick in both hands, gnawing away at the chunk of bird-meat until there was nothing left but bones.

Over toward the kitchen, Axel watched as one of his chakrams--topped with a large pizza--spun past him. He snapped his fingers, creating a flame underneath it as the weapon-turned-grill floated around the room. Before long, the pizza was finished cooking, and the fireball beneath it vanished as the spiky-haired man left the kitchen and walked out into the eating area.

Naminé's eyes went wide as the hot pizza hovered over to her, sliding off of the chakram and onto a pan that Axel held out underneath it. The tiny girl smiled slightly, then reached for a slice. Before she could put it on her plate, however, one of Larxene's hands snatched it away.

"Ooh, this looks _good_," she said, taking a big bite before zipping back to her own seat. Marluxia turned and glared at her, causing the young woman to shrug and glance around nervously for a second before scarfing down what was left of the stolen slice.

The two visitors to Castle Oblivion, Luxord and Xigbar, sat about half a dozen seats away from Naminé, both drinking some sort of dark beer from large glass mugs. Though Marluxia had attempted to get them to sit somewhere further away from the little girl so as to not expose her to their drunken antics, that only succeeded in causing both of them to relocate to the next couple of seats over. Eventually, the pink-haired man just gave up and hoped Naminé would be paying too much attention to her food to notice anything else.

Finally, the spiky-haired chef himself plopped down next to Naminé, grabbing a slice of the pizza he had cooked and munching away at it before it got cold, not even bothering to put it on a plate first.

Though relations among the Organization weren't as good as they could be behind the scenes these days, everyone on both sides of the now-divided group gladly ignored those problems when food was involved.


	14. Rejection

**Rejection**

Xemnas, with his hood concealing his face, sat down upon the throne and stared out across the room before him. It was almost entirely empty, with two exceptions: a suit of silver-and-blue armor lying in pieces on the opposite side, and a Keyblade stabbed into the floor just inches away.

From what little information he had been able to glean from Xigbar and Xaldin, the armor and weapon were both found lying on the ground nearby when they had first discovered him, back before he had become a Nobody.

Xemnas had no memory of this event--only bits and pieces of his memory from before had returned over time, drifting into his consciousness at seemingly random moments. Upon entering the remains of Ansem's research facility, fragments of an argument between the old man and himself flashed through his mind. When walking around the streets of the place once known as Radiant Garden, he occasionally saw flashes of his younger self doing the same. The stairs leading toward the place where he now sat brought back memories of the construction of the room, informing him that he had not merely stumbled upon this place in his earlier years--he had built it.

But looking at the empty armor brought forth no memories--only a strange feeling which he didn't recognize, though it was vaguely familiar in some way.

At first, he had no idea what the importance of this armor was. It couldn't have possibly belonged to him in an earlier time--it was far too small to fit on his body, and was clearly meant for a female. But then, who _had_ worn it? No amount of wandering through the worlds seemed able to reawaken any memories of such things.

That is, until he began having strange dreams... dreams about people he had never seen before. Three young warriors with Keyblades--and one Keyblade in his dreams looked particularly familiar.

He stood up from the throne and walked across the floor of the chamber, stopping just short of the pile of ancient metal. He glanced down at the Keyblade--it was all but identical to the one he had seen in the hands of that blue-haired woman from his dreams. Reaching down, he gripped the handle and lifted the weapon from its resting place.

For a brief moment, he swung the weapon around, getting used to the weight of the ancient Keyblade in his hand. A power he had not felt before flowed into every part of his body. And then, just as soon as it had began, it suddenly stopped.

The Keyblade disappeared into a flash of bluish-white light, reappearing in the exact same spot it had been left all those years ago. The only change was that the weapon no longer appeared quite as old and dusty as before.

Perhaps the weapon itself had rejected Xemnas somehow, or perhaps it was the Keyblade's former master who did not wish for him to wield it. Regardless of the cause, the result was the same--it would be necessary to find another Keybearer to do the job, if Kingdom Hearts was to ever become complete.


	15. Are You Challenging Me?

**Are You Challenging Me?**

A flurry of arrowhead-shaped bullets mowed down a small crowd of Shadow Heartless in a matter of seconds, causing the spiky-haired man in front of them to halt his attack in mid-swing and growl before turning to face the swarm on the other side of him.

Axel and Xigbar had been sent out on a Heartless-extermination mission together, but so far it seemed like the older man didn't need any help--if anything, the Organization's Number Eight was only getting in the way while Xigbar shot down the countless Heartless like fish in a barrel.

"Hey, scarface," the redhead yelled, glaring up at the pillar of rock where the sniper was perched, "How 'bout leaving a few of 'em for me?"

The older man smirked and cleared out the other half of the swarm without even looking to see where his weapons were aimed.

"Oh, don't worry," he said, reloading his arrowguns with a click and a flash of purplish energy. "I'm leavin' the toughest one for you, if you think you can handle it."

A larger Heartless began to form, slowly taking shape from a puddle of darkness on the ground. It looked exactly like a Shadow, but many times larger, towering over Axel when it reared up on its hind legs and flailed its clawed hands wildly in the air. He raised one of his chakrams and engulfed it in flame, preparing to get his chance to fight for the first time in the entire mission.

Instead, his chakram only blew aside the cloud of dark smoke left behind as the Heartless was annihilated by a sphere of purplish energy from above.

Once again, Axel glared upward.

"What, you thought _that_ was the last one?"

Xigbar laughed slightly, splitting the large, rifle-like weapon in his hands back into two smaller guns and reloading them both.

"You just wait, kid. Next to the Heartless I'm talkin' about, that little thing's nothin'."

Axel shrugged, then dematerialized his chakrams and leaned up against the pillar. After a few minutes, Xigbar teleported down from his perch and leaned against the other side, dematerializing his weapons as well.

"Y'know," Axel said, "I don't think there _are_ any more Heartless here."

"Eh, have a little patience, kid. Sometimes these guys are a little slow to show up."

The redhead scoffed.

"Slow to show up? They're Heartless. Just a bunch of mindless bugs. The big one's not gonna wait around until the rest of the swarm's wiped out before attacking."

"Look, kid... I've been doin' this a hell of a lot longer than you. I know these things. When I say it's gonna take a while, you'd better believe it."

The two both shrugged and leaned back up against their sides of the pillar, crossing their arms and waiting for their Heartless target to arrive. After about ten minutes of waiting, Axel took a step away from where he was standing, then turned toward the older man and spoke.

"Look," he said, "We're not gonna accomplish anything just sitting here for hours waiting for some giant Heartless to show up."

"It's called setting up an ambush, kid. It'll be a lot easier to take this one down if we're here first."

The spiky-haired man summoned one of his chakrams and lazily spun it on his finger, going faster and faster as time went on.

"How about we do something to pass the time, then?", he said, tossing the weapon into the air and catching it as it fell. "A little sparring match between you and me, so I don't forget how to fight by the time this last Heartless _finally_ gets here."

"So ya wanna fight, eh?"

Xigbar grinned.

"Thought you'd never ask," he said, materializing his guns in succession and pointing them toward the ground at his feet. "Y'know, to tell ya the truth... I've been wantin' to do this ever since Xemnas dragged you and Saix in from the wilderness."

Axel's other chakram appeared in a swirl of flames and black energy, and immediately he was on the attack. Xigbar ducked under the first swing, then leaped up over the second and kicked his young opponent in the chest with both feet, sending him stumbling backward. He quickly recovered, spinning his weapons and sending a fireball rocketing out from between them.

The old elf shot the projectile out of the sky before it came close, causing it to explode and send sparks flying everywhere. He then proceeded to fire away with both guns, forcing Axel to run while spinning his chakrams rapidly around him just to block or avoid them all.

"Not bad for an old man," Axel said, grabbing both of his spiked wheels out of the air as the last of the bullets clattered to the ground and vanished.

"Heh. You ain't seen nothin' yet, kid."

Quickly reloading his weapons, Xigbar sent another salvo of arrow-bullets toward the redhead, who raised his weapons in preparation to deflect them. Several seconds passed without the expected metallic clatter, and Axel moved his chakrams to the side to get a look at what was going on.

"Bad move."

At that very instant, a dozen portals in space opened up all around Axel, releasing the barrage of bullets that Xigbar had sealed away in another dimension while his opponent's vision was obscured by his own weapons. He twisted his body like a cat trying to flip to its feet in midair, attempting to dodge as many of the shots as possible, but he wasn't nearly fast enough to avoid them all.

"Arrrgh!"

Xigbar reloaded his weapons and smirked, watching as the portals closed and Axel slowly stood up. Several parts of his cloak were torn, exposing the pale skin underneath; the small drops of blood on the ground around him meant that the uniform wasn't the only thing full of holes.

Axel breathed heavily for a moment, then stood back up to his full height, surrounding both of his chakrams in an aura of flames. He threw one toward Xigbar, who tilted his head to the side just enough to narrowly avoid it and then fired off three shots from one of his weapons in response. Blocking with the other chakram, Axel then snapped his fingers, and the first one came spinning back twice as fast as it had flown before.

Xigbar turned his head slightly and began to get out of the way, but he was not quite fast enough--the chakram slashed past his upper arm, the flames burning away a portion of his cloak and exposing his shoulder. Though there was no bleeding since the heat cauterized the wound almost instantly, it still hurt like hell.

"Damn it!", the elf spat, dematerializing one of his weapons for a moment and clutching his injured shoulder. "I'm gettin' rusty. Should've seen that one comin' a mile away..."

"I bet that's a little hard with only one eye," Axel taunted, catching his second weapon as it returned to his hand.

While the two cloaked warriors glared at each other and prepared to finish their fight, a massive puddle of blackness began to form around the stone pillar in the middle of the battlefield. The pillar cracked and then shattered as a truly gargantuan Heartless began to appear, its sheer size almost seeming to tear the ground around it apart as it came.

"Oh," Xigbar said, turning his one good eye toward the creature, "Looks like we've got ourselves a visitor."

Axel gave it a brief glance, then shrugged and turned toward Xigbar once again.

"So, where were we?"

"You got your one lucky hit in, so I'd say... right around the part where you start gettin' your ass whupped."

The enormous Heartless just watched as its presence was completely ignored, the two Nobodies returning to their battle despite the interruption. If it had been a creature with any significant amount of intelligence, it might be confused by this fact--instead of inspiring absolute terror in the populations of entire worlds, as a Heartless of its level normally would, it was being ignored by two skinny humanoids with fancy weapons.

Axel jumped into the air to avoid a series of shots from Xigbar, who responded by holding up one hand and making a "thumbs down" motion. Gravity suddenly intensified around the younger Nobody, canceling the momentum of his jump and bringing him crashing back to the ground face-first. As the pull of gravity returned to normal, Axel sprang back up, his face a bit scuffed-up but otherwise fine, and snarled.

He held out both hands, and a wave of flames erupted from the ground in front of him, advancing toward Xigbar. The air around the elf rippled for a moment, and then he vanished, reappearing behind Axel and clobbering him with an elbow to the jaw. The younger man fell forward, then recovered just in time to counter with a double-slash of his chakrams before Xigbar could teleport once again. The bladed wheels left behind a bloody gash across the sniper's midsection as they went, tearing loose a chunk of black cloth from his cloak as well.

Xigbar stumbled backwards, then growled and once again merged his two guns into the larger one that resembled a sniper rifle. Axel rolled out of the way as several energy-charged bullets came flying toward him, the first of which sliced through part of his cloak as it went. Standing back up, he grunted and engulfed both of his weapons in roaring flames before suddenly smashing them together, creating a combined weapon much like Xigbar's.

"Huh," the elf mumbled, "So you can pull that trick off, too? You must be better with those ninja-star things than I thought."

Behind the two warring Nobodies, the giant Heartless had apparently grown tired of waiting. It raised up one massive fist, and uttered a distorted, incomprehensible groan before slamming it down into the ground between Axel and Xigbar.

The creature turned its head to either side, staring directly into each of the Organization members' eyes. The tentacles sprouting from its head like dreadlocks twitched slightly, and a pool of black ooze began to seep out from its fist, spreading from the point of impact and coating the ground all around it.

Both Nobodies turned their heads toward the Darkside simultaneously, raising their weapons.

"Hey, ugly," Axel began.

Both he and Xigbar finished the sentence at the same time, letting loose the full power of their fused weapons directly into the creature's face.

_"Get outta the way!"_

There was an explosion large enough to crumble a skyscraper, and the Heartless stood back up for just a moment before realizing that it no longer had a head. It stumbled, then fell backwards with an earth-shaking crash, disintegrating into a cloud of Darkness as it went.

The flames around Axel's fused chakrams dimmed, and the large wheel split back into two smaller ones. Turning away from the fading remains of the Heartless that they had been sent there to eliminate in the first place, Xigbar noticed this and laughed.

"What, can't hold 'em in that form any longer than that?"

"Gimme a break," Axel groaned, surrounding his weapons in flame once again. "I only learned that little move last month... of course it's not gonna be perfect just yet."

Xigbar raised his still-combined weapon, charging a sphere of purplish gravitational energy at its tip.

"Heh. So you still haven't mastered it yet... guess that's your excuse for losing, then."

Before Axel could react, Xigbar fired, sending the spiky-haired man flying backward, steam and ripples of energy trailing behind him. He finally came to a stop against the side of a cliff, leaving a network of cracks spreading outward from an Axel-shaped dent where his body made impact. The old elf split his weapon and then unsummoned both of its component parts, walking over to the spot on the ground where his fallen opponent had landed.

"Maybe next time, kid."

He held out one hand, and a dark portal swirled into existence only inches away from Axel's unconscious body. He then grinned, reached down, and hefted the skinny redhead up onto his shoulder with a bit of effort.

"C'mon, let's get back to the base before Saix thinks we've gone rogue."


	16. Multitasking

**Multitasking**

"Dude," Demyx gasped, staring across the room in awe at Lexaeus. "How does the big guy _do_ that?"

On the other side of the gym located on one of the lower floors of Castle Oblivion, the Organization's most muscular member was lying down on a bench, holding a heavy dumbbell in one hand and a book in the other. He was continuously raising and lowering the weight in his hand, but his attention seemed to be more focused on what he was reading.

The object Lexaeus was lifting was about the size of Naminé, but the thick metal bar and multiple weights attached were undoubtedly several times heavier than the tiny girl would ever be. A weight that size would be difficult for Demyx to lift with _both_ arms, and yet the larger man was easily lifting it up and then bringing it back down with only one.

Zexion sat on another bench a few feet away from where Demyx was standing, apparently not surprised at all by this show of strength. The blue-haired man had known Lexaeus far longer than anyone else in the Organization, after all--this was hardly the first time he had seen what the older Nobody was capable of.

"This is nothing," he said, turning to face Demyx. "You should see him on a Heartless extermination mission."

The younger man gulped.

"Er, uh... n-nah, I really shouldn't," Demyx stuttered. Images of Lexaeus picking up giant Heartless with his bare hands and flinging them around like they were nothing entered his mind. "Wouldn't wanna get in the big guy's way when he's busy with the Heartless, y'know?"

Zexion just sighed and returned to his reading.


	17. Rainbow

**Rainbow**

It's rather odd, being the only one in all of Organization XIII to have truly normal-looking hair.

Well, I suppose Lexaeus and Xigbar's haircuts aren't all that unusual... and aside from being rather greasy and unwashed, Vexen's isn't especially out of the ordinary either. Xaldin's, as well, wouldn't look out of place on his own homeworld, and it doesn't just grow that way naturally--he needs to actually tie all those braids himself.

Regardless, the vast majority seems to have hair that doesn't seem possible. The rainbow of colors, and even the spikes and bizarre shapes their hair always seems to take... there's no way the other members' hair could be like that naturally. And yet, a bit of hair gel here and there aside, it seems that is indeed the case.

Case in point: Marluxia. When he first arrived here in this dark castle we call home, I swore up and down that his hair had to have been dyed in order for it to possibly be _pink._ Only after he had spent several months in the Organization did I discover the truth--due to a rare mutation, his hairs are open on the ends, allowing a certain type of harmless bacteria to become trapped inside and produce that distinctive color. One truly does learn something new every day.

Saix's hair has always puzzled me. Though he and Xigbar are brothers, somehow they share neither hair color nor growth patterns; when I asked Xigbar about it one day, he brushed me off and refused to give a clear answer. I later learned elsewhere that the sort of elves that the two brothers belong to have hair that changes colors with age; lighter blues during their younger years, gradually growing darker throughout their twenties and thirties, before finally becoming black and (if they live long enough) gray. Though one of the oldest among us, Xigbar is hardly old enough by elvish standards to be going gray--I suppose the reason he wouldn't tell me anything is because he's embarrassed by that bit of premature aging.

Axel's hair is, if anything, even more bizarre than Saix's. From what little information I have been able to scrounge up, it seems that he, too, belongs to another species with somewhat different hair genetics than those of humans. Perhaps that also explains his strangely catlike eyes... and the fact that, for a human, being as thin as he is couldn't possibly be healthy.

Much like Axel, Roxas' hair seems unnaturally spiky. Unlike Axel, he does not appear to belong to some other species... and I don't believe I've ever seen him applying any hair gel, so this spikiness cannot simply be explained away like Demyx's. The boy claims that our fourteenth member, Xion, has fairly normal-looking hair... but I haven't been able to confirm his claim, however, as the girl never seems to remove her hood. It would be rather uncalled for to reach down and pull her hood away myself, so I suppose I'll just have to wait and see.

Zexion's hair doesn't seem to have any sort of explanation behind it, either. As long as I've known him, it has always been that bizarre silvery shade of blue, though its length has steadily increased during his years in the Organization. Pictures from his days before becoming a Nobody show this rather clearly--once upon a time, both of his eyes were visible; now, a curtain of hair hangs down over the right side of his face. I wonder how he can see to read sometimes.

Xemnas... I honestly don't know what to say about Xemnas' hair. While I wouldn't say it out loud when he's around, the Superior has the most bloody ridiculous haircut I have ever seen. The silver coloring, apparently natural, certainly doesn't help matters. I've never bothered to ask Xemnas why his hair looks the way it does, and it's probably in my own best interest that it stays that way.

Finally, last but not least... well, perhaps least as well, if you consider her violent tendencies--Larxene. I've never seen her in the act, but I have a sneaking suspicion that she somehow uses her electrical powers to make those roach-like hair "antennae" stand up that way. Why she wants to look like some kind of giant insect is beyond me.


	18. Drive

**Drive**

Saix paced back and forth in the Gray Area, waiting for the other members to gather before deciding who to send out on the most recent mission that Xemnas had assigned. Though the Superior had decided to send Roxas on the mission, he had also described the world that the boy would be sent to--which made it clear that sending him alone would not have been a wise decision.

"Now that you have all gathered here," he said, staring out across the crowd of black-cloaked men and women standing before him, "I need to ask you a question, before deciding who to send with Roxas on today's mission."

The younger members glanced around, looking a bit confused. Some of the others just stood and waited, arms crossed, for Saix to finish talking before reacting.

"Who among you is capable of driving a motor vehicle?"

Xaldin, Lexaeus, Axel, Demyx, Luxord, and Larxene raised their hands immediately. After a brief pause, Marluxia slowly raised his hand as well.

"Eh... never done it before," Xigbar muttered, raising his hand. "Got some experience with spaceships, though... so how hard could it be?"

Vexen and Zexion mumbled something quietly to each other, glancing over at Xigbar as the old elf spoke. After a few moments, both of their hands went up as well. It seemed that, among the twelve members gathered, only Roxas and Xion were completely incapable of driving a car.

Saix sighed and glanced down at the floor at his feet; apparently, he had been expecting this question to narrow down the group a bit. After pulling the scrap of paper describing the mission out of his pocket and looking over it a bit more, he raised one hand and pointed toward Larxene.

"Larxene," he said, "You will accompany Roxas on this mission."

He walked over to the young woman, handing her the mission card before continuing.

"As this world is one with no knowledge of magic, or even of Light and Darkness, you will not be permitted to use Corridors of Darkness for travel once you arrive there. Instead, you will rent an appropriate vehicle and search for the Heartless that way."

Reaching into one of his pockets, he pulled out a large pouch of money and handed it over; Larxene smiled slightly and snatched the bag away before stuffing it into her own pockets.

"Heh," Xigbar said, glancing over toward her, "Looks like you've got your allowance for this week. Don't spend it all in one place."

She glanced over at the one-eyed elf and growled in response, then quickly turned away and headed into the dark portal that Saix had opened. Roxas walked along slowly and carefully behind her, not wanting to annoy her after the way she had treated him on their _first_ mission together.

As the two passed through the swirling darkness, Larxene's face suddenly lit up in a way that Roxas had never seen. As she glanced around at the tall buildings and city streets of the new world they had been sent to, her eyes almost appeared to be watering--something that Roxas had _definitely_ never seen happen before.

"Umm... Larxene?", Roxas asked, tapping her lightly on the shoulder. "What's wrong?"

Immediately her face hardened, and she snapped back to her usual self.

"Nothing. Let's hurry up and find a car before you get caught in a drive-by shooting or something."

* * *

Several minutes later, Larxene and Roxas found their way to the nearest rental car place in the city. The young woman had somehow managed to haggle the price down to less than half of what was marked, though Roxas wasn't sure how she had pulled it off; he did notice that the car dealer seemed to recognize her, and he didn't exactly seem happy to see her again.

The car was small, black, and overall pretty average-looking; the perfect vehicle to have if you didn't want to draw attention to yourself. There were a few small dents and scrapes here and there, and the back bumper sagged down slightly, but nothing appeared to be seriously damaged. Larxene hopped in, started the car, and then tested out the headlights and horn, causing Roxas--still standing outside--to nearly jump out of his shoes. After a few moments, he shook it off and opened the door, climbing into the passenger's seat.

"Uh-uh," Larxene said, shaking her head at him. "Kids sit in the back."

Grumbling slightly, Roxas got back out, slammed the passenger's-side door, and then relocated himself to one of the seats in the back of the car. At least she hadn't waited until he had already put on his seatbelt before making him switch seats.

Before long, the early annoyances of the mission were forgotten as the car rolled out into the streets. Larxene was a surprisingly good driver, though she did drive a bit fast sometimes and stop a bit suddenly when pedestrians crossed the street in front of her. Once, she nearly ran down an old lady pushing a shopping cart; if Roxas had not fastened his seatbelt earlier, he would've had his face smashed against the seat in front of him from the force of the car screeching to a halt just inches short of the unfortunate woman.

A few more minutes of driving, and their surroundings began to grow a bit grittier. Graffiti covered the walls of every other building, and many of the windows were cracked or shattered. Groups of men in suits, talking back and forth at breakneck speed in some foreign language, occasionally wandered out of bars and restaurants; others, usually younger men in more casual clothes, hung around on street corners and just watched everyone else pass.

"See, this is where I grew up," Larxene said. "Now you understand why we had to drive, instead of just running around everywhere on foot?"

Roxas shrugged.

"Uh... I guess so?"

"Of course, it's not like either of us would have any problem with the local thugs or anything," she continued, glancing out the window and waving at a few of the dark-suited men standing in front of an Italian restaurant. One of them gasped, took off his sunglasses, and blinked a few times, looking like he had seen a ghost.

"But Saix told me to keep the body count as low as possible when I'm out on missions... so we're not getting out of the car until those Heartless show up."

The boy in the back seat nodded slightly, feeling a bit relieved that his sadistic driver wasn't going to drag him along on a killing spree. Well, as long as she followed Saix's orders, anyway.

Fortunately, they didn't have to wait very long. A puddle of blackness spread outward from the middle of the road ahead, and a group of Mega Shadows formed out of it. Pedestrians screamed and ran, dropping whatever they were carrying as the roughly human-sized black bugs appeared. Though this world had been attacked (and destroyed) by Heartless in the past, everyone's memory of the event seemed to have been erased when the world was restored just a week or so earlier; this was, for all intents and purposes, the first time any of these people had ever seen the creatures.

Rather than stopping the car, Larxene sped up. The group of Heartless prepared to attack the incoming vehicle, but before they could make a move, the car smashed through them, instantly destroying some and knocking the others aside like bowling pins. Larxene swerved and spun the car around, stopping perfectly in a nearby parking spot before yanking the key out of the ignition and leaping out through the open window. Roxas opened his door and jumped out as well, slamming it behind him so that no Heartless would crawl inside while he was gone.

The two surviving Mega Shadows were quickly destroyed by bolts of lightning, but it seemed that they were only the first wave of a much larger Heartless attack. Small, flying Heartless, resembling bells with odd-looking pointed hats, came swarming out from behind an apartment building, raining blasts of various elemental magics down onto the street below them. Roxas deflected a series of fireballs with his Keyblade, then threw the weapon like a boomerang, knocking several of the small Heartless out of the sky. Larxene finished them off with a flurry of thrown knives, each one being pinned against the boarded-up windows of a nearby building before exploding into puffs of Darkness. Several hearts floated up for a second before disappearing into thin air.

Roxas' weapon returned to him just in time to deflect another fireball, sending it flying up at just the right angle to strike a Blue Rhapsody. Being vulnerable to fire magic, the tiny wizard Heartless squeaked and spiraled toward the ground in flames, being destroyed on impact with the sidewalk. The boy ran and kicked off the side of a building to jump higher, striking with his Keyblade several times in midair to destroy another group of the little Heartless. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted one Yellow Opera foolishly attempting to zap Larxene with electricity; rather than harming her in any way, it actually seemed to make her stronger, and she proceeded to leap into the air and smash the Heartless with her bare hands.

In a matter of minutes, the swarms of small Heartless had been cleared out, and the city's residents had begun to crawl back out from wherever they had hidden during the battle. They stared at the two black-cloaked people standing in the street, carrying odd weapons... and then, slowly, they began to clap and cheer. For once, Organization XIII's first impression with a world was positive--it was clear that this city had not yet been exposed to the blind hatred for Nobodies that many other worlds held.

Before the two Organization members could get ready to leave, a heavy _thud _in the distance reached their ears, followed by a deafening roar. Larxene and Roxas both turned in the direction of the sound only to see several cars come flying through the air, slamming through old apartment buildings and sending loosened bricks flying everywhere. In a few more seconds, however, they could see the source of the sound--perhaps the largest Heartless that either of them had ever seen, stomping down the street and crushing everything in its path.

Its entire body was blue and seemingly covered in fur, with a few patches of darker blue mixed in here and there. Its feet ended in hooves, though they were unlike those of any normal hoofed animal, and two curling horn-like tusks grew out from below its mouth. Atop its head was a single black horn, jutting out from beneath its fur.

Larxene caught the Behemoth's attention by directing two bolts of lightning at its tusks, causing to roar in pain and come charging straight at her. When it lowered its head to slam into her, she zipped out of the way faster than the eye could see, appearing at the creature's side and landing a powerful kick. Rather than moving the enormous beast, however, the blow only caused the side of its body to shudder slightly before the thing turned its head and flung Larxene away with a swing of one of its tusks.

Roxas took this opportunity to jump onto the other tusk, swinging around it and landing on the giant Heartless's head. He raised his Keyblade into the air and then slammed its tip down into the creature's skull, causing its legs to buckle slightly; it stumbled about for a few seconds, crushing several parked motorcycles before falling flat onto the street. Larxene pulled herself up off the ground next to the building she had been thrown into and groaned slightly, rubbing her sore shoulder, before summoning her knives and running up the fallen creature's side and onto its back.

One by one, she threw her knives down so that they became embedded in the skin of the Heartless, then charged up a massive amount of electricity between her hands. Screaming, the slammed her hands down and released all of this energy into the knives, causing beams of electricity to spread between them and lash out at the Behemoth's body everywhere they touched. Meanwhile, Roxas was raining down a series of Keyblade strikes onto the thing's head; occasionally, it would begin to stand up only to be stunned by an especially powerful blow and come crashing down again.

Finally, Roxas jumped high into the air above the Behemoth before diving back down toward it, light beginning to glow around his Keyblade as he fell faster and faster. Larxene charged up another blast of lightning at the same time, zapping the black horn on the creature's head just as it began to stagger to its feet. As the creature stumbled and slumped to the ground again, Roxas' attack struck, smashing into the horn and shattering it before cleaving through the rest of the massive beast's head on the way down.

Larxene jumped off as the Heartless dissolved away into Darkness, releasing a powerful heart that drifted upward for a second before disappearing. Roxas wiped some sweat off his forehead and took a deep breath before dematerializing his Keyblade and sitting down on the sidewalk to rest.

"Don't get lazy, now," she said, yanking the boy up by the arm and pointing over toward the wreckage of their car. "You're not the one who got thrown into a building, after all. Let's get outta here before anyone else sees us."

She held out her hand, causing a dark portal to swirl open in front of her. Before Roxas could point out that Saix had said not to use them, Larxene shoved him through the opening before quickly hopping in herself.

With the giant Heartless gone, the people of the city slowly returned to the streets to see what had happened. The dark corridor vanished just in time, leaving no trace of the Organization's involvement in the battle... except for a flattened black rental car, permanently embedded into a crater shaped like a Behemoth's hoofprint.


	19. Creation

**Creation**

Vexen slowly paced back and forth in his lab at the very bottom of Castle Oblivion's basements, grumbling to himself and cursing Xemnas as he went.

The project that later became the Replica Program was originally intended to create a squadron of mindless robot bodyguards for the Organization, powered by magic and possessing some degree of artificial intelligence, but not truly alive. Once Xemnas became involved, however, the plan changed.

Xemnas was content with the army they already had, the Dusks and other lesser Nobodies. He didn't care if some of them had to be needlessly sacrificed to keep enemies out of the Organization's way. In the Superior's eyes, their lives held no value... and so, he had no interest in developing a non-living army as an alternative.

However, he did become interested in one quality Vexen's robots displayed. After being activated, if they were exposed to the energy given off by the Organization's powers, a reaction with their magic-infused bodies caused them to gain similar abilities. Once one had copied someone's power, it was permanent; though it would occasionally fade if kept away from the power's original owner for too long, being exposed to that power again would restore it.

It was at this point that the Replica Program got its name. Xemnas began testing the robots himself to determine if they were fit for whatever goal he had in mind for them, taking them away from Vexen's lab one by one and returning several minutes later with his answer. Eventually, one of the Replicas passed his test; it was given the title "No. i"--named after an imaginary number, as opposed to the whole numbers that each member of the Organization held.

Zexion stood in the corner of the room, watching and listening as Vexen rambled on to himself about Xemnas' interference. Finally, he walked over toward the older man and spoke.

"Are you going to need my help or not?"

The scientist paused, turning and looking down toward Zexion.

"Ah, Zexion... yes... I seem to have gotten a bit distracted," he said, muttering something about Xemnas under his breath before continuing. "The Superior wanted you to infuse the inactive Replicas with your illusion powers, so that they will be able to change shape based on the abilities they take on later."

He handed a stack of notes to the younger man; they appeared to be written in Xemnas' unusual handwriting, specifying exactly how he wanted Zexion's illusion to work. He sighed slightly, flipping through the pages, and then sat them down on a table before summoning his lexicon and walking over to the line of robots standing against the wall.

"It seems that Xemnas has some special interest in this one," Zexion said, stopping in front of the one robot out of the group that was even smaller in stature than the blue-haired man. "His instructions as to what to do with 'No. i' were much more complicated than what he specified for any of those without numbers."

"In what way?"

"It seems that this one has a sort of glitch that Xemnas considers to be desirable for the program," Zexion answered. "It has the ability to unconsciously siphon memories from its surroundings, rather than only copying the powers of others. As such, he wishes for 'No. i' to change shape in relation to those memories, rather than simply mimicking on the form of the source of its powers."

Vexen's eye twitched slightly.

"Absorbing _memories_... allowing such a thing to go on unchecked could cause the Replica to become aware of itself, or perhaps even develop a complete personality of its own..."

He paced away from the wall again, watching as Zexion began to weave his illusion spell over the childlike robot. For a fleeting moment, he thought he saw a fuzzy image of a taller woman in armor appear over the Replica's featureless body, but when he blinked it was gone.

"What _is_ Xemnas thinking...?"


	20. Magic

**Magic**

Xaldin and Xigbar each sat on small wooden stools at one of Twilight Town's local bars, having a few drinks after their most recent missions. Though the bartender occasionally gave them odd looks and other people would whisper about their pointed ears and oddly-colored eyes behind their backs, nobody dared to actually start anything with them--between Xigbar's collection of scars and Xaldin's sheer size, it was clear that they weren't to be messed with.

Gulping down another mouthful of booze from his mug, Xaldin turned toward the one-eyed elf and scratched one of his sideburns before speaking.

"'Ey, Xiggy," he said, voice slurring a bit more than usual due to the effects of the alcohol. "Y'know how we all got our own powers when we became Nobodies, right?"

He nodded.

"What about it?"

"Well, I was wonderin' about somethin'," Xaldin began, taking another drink and pushing his empty glass over toward the bartender before he continued. "Back before you were a Nobody, when you didn't have those powers yet... how the _hell_ did you pull off that standin'-in-midair trick back then?"

Xigbar grinned, sat his now-empty mug down, and shrugged.

"Magic."

The bartender raised an eyebrow at this as he came by to grab the two elves' glasses, carrying them off to refill them with more beer.

"Aw, c'mon... magic? You don't really expect me to believe that, do you?"

"No, I'm bein' serious here," Xigbar said, "Those boots I wore back then? Got 'em from the military back home. Experimental stuff, infused with gravity magic... took a bit of gettin' used to, but those things saved my ass a few times."

The bartender returned with mugs of beer in hand, setting them down carefully in front of the two black-cloaked men before wandering off to tend to his less dangerous-looking customers.

Before long, both of the mugs were empty once again. Xigbar shook his head when the bartender came back for them, fishing a small pouch of munny from his pocket and sliding it across the counter toward the man before standing up.

"Well... better head back to the base pretty soon," he said, stretching slightly before heading toward the door.

"Yeah," Xaldin said, snickering slightly as he stood up to his full height and followed. "If we hang around in here too much longer, Xemnas might send your little brother out looking for us."


	21. Flowers

**Flowers**

It was a sunnier-than-usual day in the vast, grassy world where Castle Oblivion was located; there was not so much as a hint of rain on the horizon, and even the white, puffy clouds that usually drifted overhead were nowhere to be seen. Bright sunlight streamed through the many windows of Marluxia's greenhouse, causing all of the countless flowers to spread their petals and making odd light patterns on the floor.

As he usually did at this time of day, the pink-haired man walked down the aisles between his rows of plants, carrying an old metal watering can and sprinkling the leafy greens and many-colored petals with it as he passed. Carnivorous plants of various sizes snapped at his hood's drawstrings as they brushed by, mistaking the dangling objects for insects; he fished a few dried flies out of one of his pockets and fed these as well.

He then turned and moved on to the next row, watering several seedlings that had not yet grown to their full size. Axel stood several feet away, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, just silently watching the gardener.

Well, he _was_ silently watching until he opened his big mouth, anyway.

"Sheesh," he said, shaking his head as he watched Marluxia sprinkle just the right amount of water on the tiny sprouts. "You can control plants, right? Why not just make 'em grow like that, instead of taking the long way around?"

Marluxia just smiled slightly and ignored the redhead's comment for a moment, waiting until he had finished watering the young plants. He then sat down the watering can on the hard stone floor and turned to face Axel.

"Well," he answered, "Why don't you just microwave everything, instead of cooking with an open flame? It wouldn't take nearly as long."

Axel laughed, waving his hands around a bit as he spoke.

"Microwave everything? Are you kidding? The bread would go all limp and get slimy on the bottom, and the sauce would end up nasty, and... well, the food would _suck._"

Marluxia nodded, picking up the watering can and continuing where he left off.

"Exactly," he said, sprinkling more water onto a tall potted plant with many-pointed leaves before turning back to Axel. The spiky-haired man had a stunned expression on his face, as if amazed that Marluxia had talked him into answering his own question.

"Sometimes, you need to do things the long way... or it just doesn't work."


	22. Night

**Night**

Lexaeus stood atop Memory's Skyscraper, just staring out at the network of other buildings spreading out in all directions around him.

Though everyone called the place "The World That Never Was," this seemed to be a bit of a misnomer. It was not a world itself, but a large city that was only one part of a much larger world. It was a world of pine forests, strangely-shaped rock formations, and vast oceans; it had deserts of white sand, and plains of blue-green grass dotted with the ancient ruins of civilizations long lost. It even had a moon or two of its own--three, if you counted the heart-shaped mass that now hovered close to the Organization's base.

There were only two things that set it apart from a normal world. First of all was its lack of any native inhabitants--he figured that the swarms of Heartless which infested the city were most likely responsible for this.

Second was the fact that it was always dark--regardless of what time the clocks showed, it always _looked_ like night in the Realm of Darkness, and the city where the Organization's base of operations floated in the sky was no exception.

Some claimed that this world was not truly part of the Realm of Darkness, saying that it instead belonged to the zone between Light and Darkness. None in the Organization was sure exactly where this claim originated, but it was clearly not true--in the Realm In-Between, it was possible for anyone with a basic grasp on the power of Darkness to give commands to the Heartless. In the city where the Organization's base floated, this was not the case.

Perhaps it was because the boundaries between Realms are not quite as clear as many had believed--perhaps they believed that, because it is not difficult to reach this world from the Realm In-Between, it must be part of that Realm as well.

Others hold a foolish belief that the Realm of Darkness is nothing more than an empty void filled with Heartless. These people assumed that the dark city was located outside of the Dark Realm simply because it was a clearly-defined _place_, rather than a field of pure blackness.

Or maybe they mistook this world for part of the Realm In-Between simply because it is not totally saturated in Darkness. Because some light does shine on this world--the light of some unseen sun on the other side of the planet, reflected by the twin moons--they assumed it could not truly be in the Dark Realm. This claim falls apart quickly under examination when you consider that nowhere in the Realm of Light is there a world of pure Light without even a speck of Darkness--so why, in the opposite Realm, should it be any different?

The large man sighed quietly, fishing a pocketwatch out of his cloak and tilting it at just the right angle so the numbers on its face could be read by the light of the two moons (and Kingdom Hearts) above. After a quick glance at the time, he put the watch away and opened a dark portal; it was time to go home for the night.


	23. Questioning

**Questioning**

Axel slowly crept along the white halls of Castle Oblivion, heading down the stairs toward one of the upper basement floors and then passing through a small door to the side before stopping to listen to his surroundings.

Everything was silent; it seemed he was alone on the floor where Marluxia's room was located. After a moment's pause, he continued to sneak along like a cat stalking its prey, opening the Graceful Assassin's door as quietly as possible and peeking in. Empty, just like the halls--the large, comfortable-looking bed had been made up neatly after its owner had left it that morning, and it looked like he had not been back since.

The spiky-haired man slipped his skinny body through the partly-open door, closing it behind him as carefully as possible before heading over toward a wooden desk with a mirror attached and a small chair in front of it. Glass bottles and cloth pouches of all sizes littered the table, all full of medicinal plants; there were a few scraps of paper and a book or two sitting among them, but they were not what Axel was searching for.

He reached for the handle of one of the drawers, pulling it open and rifling through the contents. Surely there would be something in the room that would implicate Marluxia as one of the traitors Saix had told him about--a diary entry that mentioned his plan, a note to the other traitor (if there indeed _was _a second traitor), a hit list with Xemnas at number one... _anything._ He needed to find _some_ proof before he could do anything further.

Before he could close that drawer and move on to the next, however, he heard the door open behind him and a familiar voice ask him a question.

"Axel? What are you doing in my room?"

He panicked and spun around, pushing the drawer shut with one of his feet as he went. He waved his hands about and feigned innocence, cooking up an excuse at the last moment.

"Nothing much," he said, "Just looking for something of mine that Larxene stole the other day."

Marluxia walked further into the room, looking a bit confused and maybe even a bit annoyed, despite his usual calm.

"Then why are you searching _my_ room?", he asked, glaring slightly at the red-haired man. "If _Larxene_ stole something from you, wouldn't it make more sense to look for it in hers?"

Axel scratched his head and grinned nervously, taking a small step back as the pink-haired man came closer.

"Well, y'see, I already looked through there earlier," he explained, "Not a single sign of it. Couldn't find it in my own room or the kitchen, either, so I know she didn't just put it back when she was finished."

Marluxia took another step closer, causing Axel to back away even further.

"And what is it that she stole?"

"One of my spoons from the kitchen," he answered, quickly building on his earlier lie and gaining a bit of confidence. "The only one of its kind that I have left, after that Heartless swarm got in there last week. Seen it anywhere around?"

Marluxia frowned.

"I was just in the kitchen, Axel. You aren't missing any spoons."

He took another step toward the suspicious redhead, causing him to attempt to back away only to bump into the wall behind him instead.

"And Larxene hasn't stolen anything of yours recently... if she had, Naminé and I would have heard her bragging about it long before now."

He turned his back to Axel and took a few steps toward the door.

"Whatever you're really looking for, it isn't here," Marluxia said, glancing back toward him and saying one more thing before passing through the door.

"And I do hope you don't make trespassing into others' rooms like this another one of your bad habits."


	24. Sacrifice

**Sacrifice**

_My path is set. I shall seek out the wielder of the Keyblade, and the princesses. My body is too frail for such a journey, but I must do this... I will cast it off and plunge into the depths of Darkness._

Xehanort set down his pen, looking over the completed version of the tenth--and perhaps final--page of the scientific writings he had called the "Ansem Reports." He glanced across the dimly-lit laboratory at Braig and Dilan, who stood in front of the door and held their weapons close to their bodies; his eyes then turned toward the bizarre machine on the far side of the room.

The other researchers were not present. Neither was Ansem, the leader of their research team--he was wandering aimlessly in the depths of the Realm of Nothingness, where Xehanort had exiled him weeks ago. If he was still clinging to the last shreds of his life at all, that is.

The silver-haired man stood, walking over to the far end of the room where the strange machine was located. Hearts extracted from their previous owners' bodies floated in containment jars all around the room's shelves, prevented from transforming into Heartless only by virtue of the special material making up the jars. In other containers, Heartless themselves were held captive, squirming and clawing at the glass in a feeble effort to break free.

Dilan gulped, removing his left hand from his spear for a moment to scratch one of his sideburns. He had been growing them out lately, and they were now extending out onto his cheeks further than they had in his earlier years. Once the itch on his face had been scratched, he gripped his weapon with both hands once again and spoke.

"Uh, Xehanort... any reason why we've gotta stand around over here while you work on your experiments?"

He turned to face the hairy elf, his expression shifting to one of annoyance.

"I've told you before," he said, waving his arms for emphasis, "While Master Ansem is away visiting other worlds, I am in charge of our research... and you shall address me as 'Ansem' in his absence."

"Damn," Braig muttered to himself, "Why can't he just pick one name and stick with it?"

Xehanort turned and walked back over to the machine, then glanced toward the two elves before finally answering Dilan's question.

"As for why I called the two of you down here so early in the morning... I need a bit of assistance for my ultimate experiment."

He adjusted the machine, causing the electrode-like projection attached to the upper part to move away from the surgical table beneath it. He then threw his labcoat aside and climbed onto the table, lying down on his back and positioning himself so that the electrode was pointing at the center of his chest.

Dilan's jaw dropped, and he was barely able to stutter out a response.

"N-no way..."

Braig raised an eyebrow, looking quite stunned by this development but also somewhat interested.

"That's the machine that removes people's hearts," he said, watching as Xehanort closed his eyes and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "You... you're gonna turn _yourself_ into a Heartless?"

Dilan took a step forward, his initial shock giving way to anger.

"That's _crazy! _You saw what happened to all the others!", he yelled, rushing over toward the machine before anything could happen. "You'll just be throwin' your life away, Xeha--I mean, Ansem! Don't do it!"

Braig walked across the room and stood at Dilan's side, frowning slightly as he glanced down at Xehanort lying on the table. For a moment, he could've sworn he saw the silver-haired man smile slightly.

"Crazy? Perhaps. It is said that there is only a fine line separating genius and insanity," he said, speaking to the other two men without even opening his eyes. "After this final experiment, I will have the opportunity to study Heartless behavior first-hand, in the most direct and accurate way possible... for that, I will gladly sacrifice my body and become one of them myself."

He was now speaking more quickly than before, a wide grin on his face as he ranted on. Both Dilan and Braig were rather convinced that he had crossed that line between genius and insanity now.

"Dilan... resume your guard post at the door. The process must go on without any interruptions."

Xehanort opened his eyes once again, revealing that a dim orange light had begun to glow from somewhere within them, altering the color of his usually-brown irises.

"And Braig," he said, staring directly at the one-eyed elf. "When I close my eyes as a complete being for the last time... flip the switch."


	25. Breathe Again

**Breathe Again**

Xion slowly walked through the ancient building as slowly and carefully as she could... which, considering that she was a fourteen-year-old girl, was not quite as slowly and carefully as Xaldin would have liked.

"Slow down," he grumbled, coming around a corner in the hallway and catching up to the hooded girl. "You never know what's waitin' for us in a place like this..."

In this case, "a place like this" meant an ancient pyramid on some distant world which had not been disturbed for several thousand years. Well, some grave-robbers had apparently _tried,_ but judging by the skeletons scattered in several of the earlier rooms, they hadn't really gotten far enough into the place for it to really count.

Silently as usual, Xion just nodded slightly and began to walk slower. _Slightly_ slower. Well, not really all that much slower at all, and after about ten seconds of walking slower, she had returned to her usual pace once again despite Xaldin's warnings. She turned into another room and walked in to take a look around, then gasped slightly when she felt one of the stones in the floor move underneath her foot as she stepped down onto it.

"Great," the hairy elf muttered, getting into a battle stance to prepare for whatever it might be that Xion had unleashed. "You just set off another one... what's it gonna be this time? Spikes? Pit full o' snake skeletons? More o' those creepy little black beetles? Or maybe-_-_"

A slight _hiss_ from above alerted Xaldin to the identity of this room's booby-trap; when he glanced up to see the source of the sound, he saw several holes in the ceiling with a noxious-looking purplish smoke leaking out of them, slowly flooding into the room around Xion.

"It's poison gas!", he yelled out, "Quick, hold your breath! I'll take care o' this!"

For once, Xion did as she was told and immediately took a huge gulp of air, her cheeks ballooning out a bit so that she looked somewhat like a chipmunk with a mouthful of acorns. Normally, this would've looked pretty funny, but due to the serious situation they were in, Xaldin didn't even snicker; he just took a deep breath himself and adjusted his stance as the gas filled the air around the two of them. Nearly a full minute passed in utter silence, with both of the Organization members holding their breath.

Xaldin squinted his eyes shut and clenched his fists, and a faint swirling aura surrounded his body. Within a few seconds, this aura of wind rapidly gained strength, pulling all of the toxic gas in the room into itself and then launching off at hurricane-force speeds on a one-way trip out of the pyramid. If any of the desert-world's inhabitants had been outside at that moment, they would have seen a huge plume of purplish gas suddenly erupt from the side of the pyramid. They also would have probably wet themselves with fear.

Finally, once all of the gas had been cleared away, Xaldin opened his eyes and began to breathe again. He glanced over at Xion, noticing that her face had turned an odd color and she was wobbling slightly on her feet as if she was having trouble standing.

"Oh man... don't tell me you breathed in some of that crap?"

She shook her head weakly, then nearly fell over. It was then that Xaldin noticed that her cheeks were still puffed out-_-_she didn't stop holding her breath when the gas left the room.

"Aw, come on! The one time you listen, you gotta take it too far..."

He shook his head slightly, then scowled down at her... and noticed that she was lying on the floor, barely conscious, _still_ holding her breath.

"No, seriously, you can breathe now. The stuff's gone."

With that, Xion finally did stop holding her breath. Unfortunately, at that exact moment she also lost consciousness, causing Xaldin to slap his forehead out of annoyance. Between Xion and Roxas, he was beginning to wonder if _all_ the new members were like this in their first couple of weeks. Of course, he also didn't remember Demyx or Luxord ever acting so zombie-like, even on their first days in the Organization... so it's possible that only the two newest members had that problem, for whatever reason.

Grumbling to himself, he reached down and scooped up the tiny girl, slung her over his shoulder, and then turned to leave the pyramid.


	26. Test

**Test**

Roxas groaned slightly. As the sound of the dreaded word reached his ears, a deep feeling of dread washed over his entire body, though he wasn't quite sure why-_-_after all, it was just a word, and he wasn't entirely sure what this word even meant.

"Test?", he asked, looking up at the old man in front of him, "What's that?"

Vexen sighed, once again getting the feeling that he was surrounded by idiots. Well, in the case of Roxas, it was more like being surrounded by newborns, but what was the difference? Either way, he had to explain the meaning of a word that anyone over the age of four should already know, which was _very_ far from his idea of a good use of his time.

"A test. You answer questions in order to see how well you know the subject. Just like the ones you took in school," he attempted to explain. "With one exception: this particular test focuses not on knowledge, but on the combat abilities and overall power of the members of our Organization."

"Oh," the boy said, "So... a test is like combat practice?"

Again, the old man groaned and shook his head. How could someone be so unaware of the world around them?

"No... not exactly. Well, _this_ test is rather similar, but you will find that most tests have _absolutely nothing_ in common with combat practice."

He paced back and forth for a few moments, hoping with all his heart (figuratively speaking) that Roxas hadn't already forgotten everything he had told him. When the boy gave him a questioning look rather than just his usual look of blank confusion, he grinned slightly and stopped pacing.

"The testing facility is just beyond this door," Vexen said, unlocking the metal door and swinging it open carefully. "Go inside... and then follow the computer's directions _exactly_ as it says."

* * *

Several hours later, Vexen emerged from his lab with a stack of computer printouts in hand-_-_the results of the Organization's annual combat proficiency tests. He walked into the Gray Area, glanced around to make sure that everyone was present, and shuffled the papers about slightly before walking over to place them on the room's two tables, divided between them based on where each member was sitting.

"As you probably already know," he began, "The results of our annual combat testing program have been tabulated. Our fourteenth member, Xion, is exempt by virtue of not yet learning to properly control her powers... and, as usual, Xemnas has chosen to opt out of the test. Everyone else will find their report in one of the two piles I have just placed in front of you."

Before anyone else could take a look, Axel hopped up from his seat and picked up the entire pile of papers. Flipping through them, his eyes grew progressively wider.

"Sheesh!", he said, handing one of the papers to Lexaeus. "Your scores are off the scale! How do you do it, man?"

The large man glanced over at him for a second, but didn't respond.

"And Xaldin," he continued, "Not quite as high as Lexaeus on 'Physical Strength' or 'Mastery of Powers,' but... _damn!_ I'm never gonna catch up to you guys at this rate!"

Zexion snickered slightly, grabbing his report out of the other pile before the annoying redhead had a chance to sneak a look at it.

"I doubt you'd ever be able to catch up to those two, Axel," he said, "Even if they didn't have a head start. Probably not even if they hadn't already known how to fight before becoming Nobodies."

Ignoring the blue-haired man's comments, Axel flipped over to the next page in the stack, and almost instantly his jaw dropped.

"W-wait... wait just a second here," he stuttered, rapidly flipping back and forth between the two sheets in his hand. "You're tellin' me that Demyx ranked higher than me in 'Speed,' 'Endurance,' AND 'Mastery of Powers'... and we're just about even overall? What happened here!_?_ I thought _you_ were the lazy one who never trains!"

"Yep!", Demyx said, flashing a cheesy grin as he snatched his own report out of Axel's hands. "That's me all right!"

"Bu... but... I worked my ass off learning how to use my powers back when I first got in here! I trained for over a _year_ before you even joined! And now I'm not even a _tenth_ of a point ahead of you? That's not fair!"

Demyx shrugged and laughed.

"Hey, you're lucky we're still even," he said, glancing over his report and briefly wondering if some of his ratings were a bit higher than they had been last time. Eventually, he gave up, as he couldn't remember what his scores for the previous year were; he'd have to check later and see if he still had the old report in his room somewhere.

Hearing this, Axel grumbled a bit to himself, apparently finding it hard to believe that being equal in strength to Demyx could be considered "lucky."

"Seriously!", the younger Nobody continued. "If I started training like Xaldin or Lexaeus, man... I'd leave you in the dust in no time!"

* * *

**Extra Bonus Feature: Combat Proficiency Test Results**

First, a few notes. As said above, Xemnas didn't actually take the test; he's the evil dictator guy, of course, so he can't have his subordinates knowing exactly how strong he is... I'm sure he'd prefer if they believed that he was so far beyond them that they'd never have a chance (in order to prevent any attempts at overthrowing him once people start realizing that he's absolutely frickin' nuts), even though he's actually not _that_ far beyond the next-strongest members. His scores are only included here so the readers can compare him to all the others.

Saix's scores don't take his berserk state into account. If he had gone berserk during the test, he'd rank a bit above Marluxia, but he'd still be below Lexaeus and Xaldin. Based on the 0.15 lead he has on Xigbar, though, there's probably at least a little bit of a moonlight effect powering him up... the testing room probably has one or two small windows.

Also, these are only test scores. Even averaging all the scores can't really measure the overall skill and power of a character too accurately. They also can't gauge how well two characters will match up in battle-_-_how effective their individual fighting styles are against each other, their willingness to fight, how much each member is holding back (if they are at all), and other not-so-easily-measurable variables would be involved in a real fight between any two Organization members. A character who is weaker overall could still win in a fight, depending on the situation. So even though the scores do give a general idea of how powerful each member is compared to each other, they are _not_ a solid "this guy would always win against this guy" kind of power scale.

And of course, though these were based more closely on the canon material than _most_ Organization power rankings I've seen, they're still basically just my opinion. Some members (especially Demyx and Luxord) just aren't compared to other members very often in canon; Luxord ended up so close to the bottom mainly because he's the only one that Sora actually defeated in a one-on-one battle with not even Donald and Goofy helping, and that's literally the only part of the games that even vaguely hints at how strong he is compared to the others. There are, however, three rankings that are pretty much undisputable here-_-_"Xemnas is the strongest" and "Xaldin and Lexaeus are the strongest besides Xemnas" were confirmed by Nomura himself.

**Xemnas**  
Physical Strength: Great  
Speed: Great  
Endurance: Great  
Mastery of Powers: Excellent  
Mastery of Weapon: Excellent  
Defense: Great  
Overall: Great (6.38 out of 7)

**Lexaeus**  
Physical Strength: Excellent  
Speed: Bad  
Endurance: Excellent  
Mastery of Powers: Excellent  
Mastery of Weapon: Great  
Defense: Great  
Overall: Great (5.95 out of 7)

**Xaldin**  
Physical Strength: Great  
Speed: Good  
Endurance: Great  
Mastery of Powers: Great  
Mastery of Weapon: Excellent  
Defense: Great  
Overall: Great (5.92 out of 7)

**Marluxia**  
Physical Strength: Great  
Speed: Good  
Endurance: Great  
Mastery of Powers: Excellent  
Mastery of Weapon: Great  
Defense: Good  
Overall: Great (5.87 out of 7)

**Saix**  
Physical Strength: Great  
Speed: Great  
Endurance: Great  
Mastery of Powers: Good  
Mastery of Weapon: Great  
Defense: Good  
Overall: Great (5.73 out of 7)

**Xigbar**  
Physical Strength: Good  
Speed: Excellent  
Endurance: Good  
Mastery of Powers: Excellent  
Mastery of Weapon: Great  
Defense: Average  
Overall: Great (5.58 out of 7)

**Vexen**  
Physical Strength: Good  
Speed: Average  
Endurance: Good  
Mastery of Powers: Great  
Mastery of Weapon: Great  
Defense: Excellent  
Overall: Good (5.27 out of 7)

**Axel**  
Physical Strength: Good  
Speed: Great  
Endurance: Good  
Mastery of Powers: Great  
Mastery of Weapon: Great  
Defense: Good  
Overall: Good (5.27 out of 7)

**Demyx**  
Physical Strength: Average  
Speed: Excellent  
Endurance: Great  
Mastery of Powers: Great  
Mastery of Weapon: Average  
Defense: Good  
Overall: Good (5.20 out of 7)

**Roxas**  
Physical Strength: Average  
Speed: Great  
Endurance: Good  
Mastery of Powers: Bad  
Mastery of Weapon: Excellent  
Defense: Great  
Overall: Good (4.80 out of 7)

**Larxene**  
Physical Strength: Average  
Speed: Excellent  
Endurance: Average  
Mastery of Powers: Good  
Mastery of Weapon: Great  
Defense: Poor  
Overall: Good (4.75 out of 7)

**Luxord**  
Physical Strength: Average  
Speed: Good  
Endurance: Good  
Mastery of Powers: Good  
Mastery of Weapon: Good  
Defense: Good  
Overall: Good (4.58 out of 7)

**Zexion**  
Physical Strength: Bad  
Speed: Average  
Endurance: Poor  
Mastery of Powers: Excellent  
Mastery of Weapon: Average  
Defense: Average  
Overall: Average (4.02 out of 7)


	27. Trouble Lurking

**Trouble Lurking**

In a dark alley of an old, run-down-looking city, two black-cloaked men appeared through dark portals in front of a Dumpster, taking a few steps forward before removing their hoods to get a better look at their new surroundings. Demyx, confused by what he saw, turned toward his older companion and asked the first thing that came to mind.

"Hey, Xiggy," he said, glancing back and forth between the one-eyed elf and his slummy surroundings. "I thought we were supposed to be in Disney Town or something... where is this?"

"This _is _Disney Town, kid."

Demyx cautiously stepped out of the alley and took a look around. What he saw was far from the clean, peaceful, and happy image that outsiders generally had of Disney Town; this was the dark, seedy underbelly of the royal city, the outskirts where those who were not welcome near the castle were forced to make a living in whichever (possibly immoral, and definitely illegal) way they could. The young musician had no idea such a place existed on King Mickey's world.

"Dude," he said, pointing down the street, "There's a _hooker duck _over there."

"Yeah, and if you have a few spare munny on ya, she'll-_-_"

Demyx's eyes widened as Xigbar whispered something incredibly disturbing into his ear, then backed off and snickered to himself.

"Ugh! Man, that's nasty!", the younger man blurted out, recoiling away from Xigbar's words as if distancing himself from the older man would make it easier to forget what he had said. "She's not even... well, not even anywhere _near _human..."

"And speakin' of nasty," Xigbar said, "We'd better hop up onto a roof or somethin', unless we wanna get caught in the middle of somebody else's fight."

Demyx looked around for a few moments, confused, before noticing that two men with large swords were approaching each other from the opposite ends of the street, hands on their weapons. The feathered prostitute spotted one of the two men and quickly rushed into the door to an apartment nearby; when a few more seconds passed and Demyx hadn't made any effort to get out of the way, Xigbar grabbed him roughly by the shoulders and warped gravity around him so that the two floated up onto the roof of a liquor store.

"Who are those two?", Demyx asked, pointing toward the two swordsmen. One of them had spiky blonde hair, while the taller man's was long and silver. Each of the two had a single wing on one shoulder, one feathery and the other more like a bat's; when they finally came within ten feet of each other, each drew his grossly oversized sword and prepared for a fight.

"Mr. Spiky over there is Cloud Strife," Xigbar said, pointing toward the younger and smaller of the two men. "And the guy who looks like he could be the president of the Xemnas fan club is Sephiroth."

"So, uh... couldn't we just break up the fight or something?", Demyx asked, watching as the two clashed swords and then pushed each other back. "I mean, with swords that big they might slash up the buildings and stuff... are they too strong for us or something?"

Xigbar laughed.

"Nah, I could handle either one of 'em myself if it came to that. Hell, you could probably even put up a decent fight for a while... it's just not our fight. Nobody's summonin' Heartless here or anything, so why get involved?"

"Oh yeah... we're here on bug-zapper duty. I forgot."

"Yep," Xigbar said, watching the fight going on below them with his one good eye, "So unless some of those bugs show up, our job's just to watch."

* * *

Eventually, after slicing apart several streetlamps and smashing through the windows of a few buildings, Cloud and Sephiroth had moved their fight elsewhere, disappearing into a portal of darkness just like the ones the two Organization members had arrived in. Demyx and Xigbar moved on as well, hopping from one rooftop to another in search of some Heartless to exterminate. Eventually, they found them-_-_somewhere on the far side of the city, several explosions of bright light alerted the two Nobodies, and they immediately headed in that direction. Xigbar teleported to cross several buildings at a time, while Demyx made a series of flying leaps propelled by jets of water, and before long they had reached their destination: an old church with several holes blown through the roof and strange shafts of light shining out from within.

"What's with the light show?", Demyx asked, "Aren't Heartless supposed to be all darknessy, and stuff?"

"Most of 'em," Xigbar said, "But there's always exceptions."

Another blast of light smashed through the decaying roof tiles of the old church, sending shingles flying everywhere and creating another gaping hole. Through this new opening, Demyx could see one of the strange Heartless that had been causing all this destruction-_-_odd floating creatures with several pairs of golden wings. If not for the glowing yellow eyes and familiar emblem on their chests, most people would probably have not recognized them as Heartless at all.

"C'mon, get down there and wipe those things out before they fly away!"

Demyx nodded, then leaped down to the sidewalk in front of the church and blew the rusty old doors off their hinges with a quick blast of water before entering. Inside, a horde of Angel Star Heartless was fluttering about near the ceiling while several small mouse children huddled in fear under the pews, shrieking and covering their heads every time one of the creatures swooped down in their direction. At the far end of the room, a white-robed priest carrying a golden staff seemed to be going through a nervous breakdown and a crisis of faith simultaneously, his shaking hands clutching his podium as he stammered about how something wasn't supposed to work this way. One of the Heartless began to charge up a sphere of light beneath it and then fired it straight toward the overweight churchmouse, causing him to turn and gasp in shock for just a moment... before the light orb was snuffed out by an explosive ball of water.

"What in the name of..."

The priest glanced over in the direction the water-ball had come from and got a brief glimpse of Demyx for just a moment before he rocketed up into the air on a pillar of water erupting from the floor, clobbering several of the airborne Heartless with his sitar before descending. Rather than touching the ground, he launched himself up once again and knocked a Heartless through the ceiling with an upward swing of the heavy instrument, showering small chunks of wood and shingles on the pews below. Just as the dazed creature regained its balance in the air above the building, it was promptly picked off by a barrage of arrowgun fire, disappearing in a flash and sending a glowing heart skyward.

While Demyx continued his battle against the dozen or so Heartless that remained inside the church, Xigbar teleported over to a more structurally-sound section of the roof and watched through the holes. Occasionally, when a Heartless would approach the openings, he would use his gravity-manipulating powers to shove them back downward; other than that, however, he just sat back and watched. Demyx could take care of a bunch of Heartless on his own, after all; his job there was mostly to help the younger member out when it came to navigating the streets of Disney Town's shadier regions.

Meanwhile, after destroying nearly half of the Heartless singlehandedly, Demyx finally took his first hit in the battle-_-_while he was distracted by three of the Heartless in front of him, another managed to fire a ball of light directly into his back, sending him stumbling forward and falling flat on his face. The three Angel Stars in front of him floated back a bit and then began to charge up attacks of their own, but before they could fire, the Melodious Nocturne held up one hand and made a crushing motion. For a moment there was a grating noise from below as rusted-over old water pipes beneath the floor twisted and bulged; just as the spheres of light began to form in front of the three Heartless, three streams of super-concentrated water gushed forth from below and sliced through them, destroying all three instantly.

The one behind him fired a second ball of energy at his back, but before it could connect, he spun around and smacked the sphere with his sitar, sending it flying back toward its source and clipping the edge of one of its wings, causing the Heartless to spin around a bit in midair as its balance was suddenly thrown off. Demyx pointed at the disoriented flying creature and yet another cutting stream of water erupted out of the floor, finishing it off before it could recover.

At this point, only two of the shiny, translucent Heartless remained. For a moment they perked up, apparently sensing something; then, before Demyx could attack them again, they fled upward through one of the larger holes in the roof and attempted to fly off across the city. Xigbar let them get a few yards away from the church's steeple before combining his two weapons into their larger sniper-rifle-like form and gunning them down with a single shot each, releasing the last of the two hearts to go off and join the thousands upon thousands of others that had already accumulated in Kingdom Hearts.

The battle-scarred elf then hopped down into the church, stopping just a few inches short of the floor's surface rather than actually touching down. He dematerialized his weapons, then walked over toward Demyx, who did the same once he realized that the Heartless had been dealt with.

"'Scuse me for a second," he said, glancing back to Demyx and walking over toward the pulpit. "Gotta tell this old bastard off real quick before we get outta here."

Xigbar stormed over to the podium and then shoved it aside, causing it to topple to the floor and the cowering priest to lose his balance and fall to his knees. Before he was able to stand up, the elf _yanked _him up by his collar, holding him off the ground so the two were face to face.

"Hey, you. What the _hell _did you think you were doin' here?"

"I... I just... I was only trying to-_-_"

"Lemme guess," Xigbar spat, "You were tryin' to remove _every last bit _of Darkness from your congregation's hearts with some kinda spell, right?"

The old mouse gulped and nodded slightly.

"Y-yes, but it didn't... it... how did you know?"

"Ain't ever been an outbreak of _Light-based _Heartless that size for any other reason. Always some fanatic tryin' to get rid of every last trace of Darkness, like they think it's a goddamn disease or somethin'."

"But... but isn't the Darkness..."

"What, bad? Evil? Hell no, ya dumbass," he blurted out, interrupting the priest. "Darkness is somethin' just about everybody has, ever since they're born. Takin' it all away like that ain't gonna do anything but throw off the balance and screw things up."

The priest squirmed a bit, apparently uncomfortable with the idea that the Darkness was not only natural but _necessary_ for almost anyone to have a balanced existence. Previously, he would have never believed such a thing; his religion had always claimed that the power of Light was absolute and that the Darkness was a lesser force, destructive and corrupting by nature. But, as he had now seen, his own power of Light was capable of generating Heartless just as well as the dark forces were-_-_and, even worse, it had happened completely by accident. His congregation, who he had intended to protect from the Heartless forever by removing even the tiniest speck of Darkness from their hearts, had instead become the very thing he had been trying to prevent.

"Now, you better remember _everything _that happened today and don't try that kind of shit ever again," Xigbar said, yanking the mouse closer to his face for a second. "Got that?"

The priest stuttered out a response in a tiny, squeaking voice; while his cloaked rescuers were certainly preferable to the Heartless, he was still so scared that he was visibly shaking.

"Y-yes, sir..."

With that, Xigbar let the old mouse drop to the ground with a _thump,_ then walked down between the pews back toward where Demyx was standing. Apparently, he had just stood there the whole time, staring on with amazement as Xigbar explained in just a few sentences just how badly the priest had messed up. The portly mouse was now on his knees at the other end of the church, breathing heavily and rapidly flipping through his holy texts, as if trying to find _something _that would reassure him despite the fact that he had just seen one of his core beliefs shattered to bits right before his eyes.

"Okay, kid," Xigbar said as he passed the younger member, "Looks like we're done here. You ready to go?"

He nodded, and the two put their hoods back up and disappeared back into the swirling portals of Darkness, leaving the mouse clergyman and the few remaining members of his church alone in their damaged building once again.


	28. Abandoned

**Abandoned**

As the rain continued to pour down, two small, silvery-colored figures walked the dark city streets. The sprawling metropolis was known as "The World That Never Was," though its only living residents could no longer remember why it had such a contradictory name. It was not a world in and of itself, but merely one part of a much larger one; on top of that, as anyone could plainly see, it most certainly _was,_and had been for quite a while.

All they knew for sure was that it was the only place they could safely continue to exist. Here, the only threats to their lives were the mindless hordes of Heartless that regularly prowled the streets, and most of them were no match for the silvery beings' superior strength and intelligence. There were no ignorant townsfolk to dismiss them as unnatural monsters, no mad wizards or battle-hardened soldiers to slaughter them without a second thought. The reasons that drove the Heartless to attack, as terrible as they were, could at least be understood.

The lesser Nobodies had managed to scrape out an existence for themselves there in the dark city, worlds away from the thoughtless genocide of their kind that had taken place in the Realm of Light for longer than most of them could remember. There were steady sources of food in the dark city, indoor gardens kept alive by a combination of magic and artificial light; there was still electricity and plumbing that worked, and a source of clean water somewhere deep below the surface. For many of those who were forced to stay there, this life was the way Nobodies had always lived once the loss of their hearts had twisted their forms into the distorted, silvery ones they were now cursed with; only some of the oldest among them, who had become Nobodies nearly a century ago, could still remember the time when the group known as Organization XIII watched over them and promised to return their lost hearts to them someday.

"Hey," one of the two Nobodies said to the other in the telepathic voice that all of their kind shared, "You're pretty old, right? Do you remember Organization XIII?"

The other Nobody, a larger one with a pair of wings on his back and a tail trailing behind, shrugged slightly before turning toward his younger companion and answering.

"Only barely," he said, wondering briefly what the young Creeper walking beside him was getting at. "Master Xaldin died just a month after I came here... and after that, it wasn't long before all of them were gone."

"What were they like? I, um... I've heard stories that they're the only Nobodies here who kept their original forms."

The Dragoon nodded.

"That's right," he said, "Master Xaldin was an elf... rather large, always wore his hair in long braids. He taught me everything I know about how to fight off the Heartless."

The younger of the two Nobodies glanced down at the ancient spear his companion carried; if not for the magical nature of its construction and the degree of care with which it had been maintained, it probably would have rusted away into nothing by now.

"Did... did he give you that spear?"

"Yes... not only this spear, but my armor as well. This was before the supplies at the castle ran out... back when every new Nobody found by the Organization would be provided with this kind of equipment, and training on how to use it. Not one of us had to go without some means of self-defense back then."

The young Creeper shuddered; he had heard rumors of Nobodies who had never learned how to fight being overwhelmed by the swarms of Heartless and killed, dying without any hope of ever regaining their lost hearts again. Of course, he wasn't so sure what it really meant to have a heart to begin with; he certainly didn't feel much different now than he had before he had lost his. It seemed to be a common belief among the older Nobodies that the lack of a heart prevented them from feeling emotion, or even that without a heart one could not truly exist at all, but such beliefs never seemed quite right to him. There had to be something more to their existence; if not, then why would it even be possible to survive losing your heart in the first place? If there was no point to the existence of a Nobody, why did transforming into such a state grant ordinary people such amazing power, the power to fight and destroy the Heartless even with their bare hands?

"You okay?"

"Yeah," the Creeper said, shaking away his distracting thoughts and turning his attention back toward the old Dragoon. "I just... kind of got lost in my own thoughts for a second there, I guess."

The winged Nobody suddenly burst into laughter, this time not restraining himself to only the form of mental communication the Nobodies preferred; his warped vocal cords let loose with sounds which could be said to vaguely resemble human laughter, though they were not quite close enough. For a moment, he had to prop his aging body up on his spear to maintain his balance; it had been a long time since he had laughed that hard. He then reached over and patted his smaller friend on the shoulder lightly.

"Master Xaldin always said... that we lesser Nobodies take a form that suits our personalities," he said, breathing deeply as he recovered from his fit of laughter. "And back when they were still here, all but the Dusks had one Organization member we could connect with better than any of the others. Master Zexion... he died before I came here, but I've heard it said that he, too, was quite a thinker."

"Zexion, huh?", the Creeper said, feeling something almost like a subconscious admiration for the name even though he had never heard it before. "So he was the one my kind followed back then?"

The Dragoon only nodded in response. They continued to walk alone through the dark streets, heading away from the hill where the abandoned castle floated in the sky and back toward the high-rise apartment complex where the two of them lived. It had been a long day-_-_or, at least, they had assumed it had been daytime, though it was difficult to tell in a place where the sun never rose.

As they turned a corner past a tall, neon-lit building and began to walk down the next street, the telltale yellow eyes of Heartless began to appear from the ground in front of them, signalling that once again they were in for a fight.

"More Shadows," the Creeper said, standing upright and morphing one of his flipper-like hands into the blade of a sword. "And... whatever those bigger things are..."

"Neoshadows," the old Dragoon said, brandishing his spear at the sight of them. "You take care of the little ones... leave those to me."

With that, the two Nobodies charged into battle, once again defending their home from the Heartless as their kind had always done. It was not the first battle for either of them, and it was likely far from the last; as long as the insect-like creatures that stalked the darkness continued to exist, their silvery-skinned enemies would continue to fight. That, the young Creeper had come to believe, was the true purpose of the Nobodies.


End file.
